Government Continues Efforts to Restore Isolated Villages in Central Tapanuli

Central Tapanuli, North Sumatra (ANTARA) - The Regent of Central Tapanuli, Masinton Pasaribu, stated that his administration is continuously working to restore villages impacted by the flash floods in November 2025, through the recovery of road access.

“The restoration process in the disaster-affected villages involves opening access routes. Although we have already worked on some, others have been cut off again, such as in the Muara Sibuntuon area and Puraba Village, which we are now prioritising,” said Masinton Pasaribu at the courtyard of the Grand Al Muslimin Mosque in Pandan on Friday.

With this acceleration, the goal is to ensure no more isolated villages and to enable them to recover from last year’s natural disaster. This will allow community activities in those areas to resume normally.

“Our target is to have no more isolated villages, and for the refugee issue, we practically aim for zero refugees remaining in emergency tents. Therefore, we are moving everyone to temporary housing,” he added.

As a precaution, emergency tents are still available at the disaster sites. This is to anticipate if the natural disaster occurs again.

The affected areas in Central Tapanuli include Sibio-Bio Village (Sibobangun Subdistrict), as well as Sigiring-Giring, Sait Kalangan II, Saur Manggita, and Aek Bontar Villages (Tukka Subdistrict). Flash floods also struck Hutanabolon and Kolong areas at the end of 2025.

According to observations by the Bangkit Sumatera team, Hutanabolon Village and Tukka Subdistrict are still under recovery. Residents continue to repair houses that are still habitable.

To speed up the recovery activities, heavy machinery vehicles are still operating at the sites to dredge remaining mud and carry out normalisation of the Tukka River, to prevent follow-up floods.

Nevertheless, many residents’ houses remain uninhabitable due to deep layers of mud. As a result, they must evacuate to safer places.